Brand and Grant keep SA in contention at World Games

Updated: October 31, 2014

South African surfing team members maintained their challenge for individual and team medals on the fifth day of the Claro ISA 50th Anniversary World Surfing Games as the number of competitors was trimmed to just 18 men and 16 women from the total of 150 who started the event last Saturday.Excellent one to two metre waves continued to pour through the Punta Rocas line-up and David Brand and Casey Grant posted standout performances as they both advanced through Rounds Four and Five of the cut-throat Men’s Repercharge rounds. Brand racked up a heat tally of 13.60, the highest of R4, while Grant’s radical manoeuvres earned scores of 9.43 and 8.27, the highest of R5 and left his three opponents combo’d and needing to improve on both their scores.
Team captain Michael February joined his compatriots in today’s Repecharge Round Six after placing third behind Leandro Usuna (ARG) and Andrew Fillingham (CRI) in a tightly contested Qualifying Round Four heat yesterday and dropped into the Repercharge stream.
The SA trio need to progress through five more do-or-die elimination heats to reach the Grand Final in the division and earn an individual gold, silver, bronze or copper medal.
Faye Zoetmulder was the second South African to be eliminated from the event when she finished fourth in her Women’s Qualifying Round Two heat and then slipped to third place in Repecharge Round Two. Zoetmulder finished in equal 17th overall and contributed 800 points to the team total.
Tanika Hoffman continued her challenge for honours, recording a strong win in Women’s Repercharge Round Twp and moving into the last 16 in the division where she is now four more heat victories away from a medal.
Despite the elimination of two team members, South Africa is third in the provisional points standings behind Peru, who still have all their team members in contention, and Australia who have had just one competitor ousted to date.